- The United Nations Security Council has passed a resolution extending until the end of the year its arms embargo on militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The council maintained that flow of weapons continues to pose threats to the country's provinces of North and South Kivu and the Ituri distinct, which are close to the border with Burundi, Rwanda and Burundi.
In a unanimous vote, the 15-member council renewed the arms embargo, placed travel ban and an assets freeze on violators of the embargo before the year ends.
The Group of Experts recommendations on the improvement of the embargo was also extended to 31 December.
However, there has been an agreement on the improved exchange of information between the council's sanction monitoring committee, other UN bodies and governments of the region on the light modification of the rules for the importation of military supplies for the national army and police in the DRC.
The resolution called for the urgent need for progress in security sector reform in the DRC, a diverse country plagued with several years of war and dictatorship rule. DRC has the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world.
After 45 years of misrule, Congo conducted its first-ever free and fair election in 2006.
The UN arms embargo was first imposed in 2003 following grown concerns over proliferation of arms trafficking to fuel conflicts in the Great Lakes region. The illegal exploitation and trade of natural resources in the DRC and arms trafficking had also attracted the embargo.
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